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From Our Own Correspondent: Cities on the Edge: Iran, Iraq, Russia, South Sudan

Cities on the Edge: Iran, Iraq, Russia, South Sudan

11/07/2015

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Cities on the Edge: Iran, Iraq, Russia, South Sudan

Stories and impressions from Baghdad, Aweil in South Sudan, Tehran and Vladivostok

Reporters and writers visit a brighter but still nervy Baghdad; an off-brand "BBC" cafe in Aweil, South Sudan; Tehran's Espionage Museum; casinos under construction in Vladivostok

Tales of profit, risk and danger from some spots few travellers reach, introduced by Owen Bennett Jones. In this edition, Jonny Dymond returns to Baghdad, and finds it much changed from the worst days of Iraq's occupation and civil war; yet even amid shiny new buildings, smoothly-flowing traffic and Ramadan celebrations, people are still intensely nervous about the future. James Copnall is in Aweil, South Sudan, eating in an unexpected restaurant named for the BBC itself, and seeing how despite the country's recent independence, on the ground there are still lasting relationships and exchanges with Sudanese people just over the border. Maryam Maruf visits Tehran's Espionage Museum, formerly the city's US Embassy, and now converted into a showcase for Iranian state rhetoric against "American spies". And in Vladivostok, Stephen Sackur visits some fast-rising, high-rolling casinos under construction - part of a general push to attract more Asian visitors and money to this Russian city of the far east. 

Photo: Umbrellas covering stalls at Shorja market in central Baghdad, July 2015 (AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)

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